I’ve been sitting on some pretty cool news for a while now that I can now share.
First, I’m thrilled to be joining UNSW Canberra as a Lecturer in Public Sector Management, starting in February 2020. The School of Business at UNSW Canberra is a fantastic multidisciplinary school with incredible researchers working on a wide range of public policy problems, including marketised health and social services (e.g NDIS) as well as environmental economic and social sciences. Lots of interesting discussions to be had! And I will have to strongly resist not saluting in the non-saluting area.
Second, I was successful in being awarded an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) for 2020-2023. For this project I will be investigating the world of conservation finance and impact investing. The 100 word summary is pasted below. Once I’m out of the end-of-year death spiral and settled in Canberra, I’ll share more, but suffice to say there will be generous PhD stipends available to work with me on this super interesting and relevant topic.
The effectiveness of impact investing for biodiversity conservation:
This project aims to evaluate the effectiveness of impact investing for biodiversity conservation. Over $150 billion of private capital is invested worldwide to deliver social and environmental “impact” alongside a financial return. Impact investing promises “win-win-wins” for investors, governments and biodiversity alike, but also risks exacerbating accountability failures, transaction costs and conflicts of interest within highly complex governance networks. This project seeks to discover factors that enable or inhibit the effectiveness of impact investing using a governance perspective. Project outcomes are expected to inform how impact investing may be harnessed to improve biodiversity conservation while minimising perverse outcomes.
Megan C. Evans 